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If Governor of California (USA), Arnold Schwarzenegger and the State Board of Education have their way, soon every California student will have to pass an algebra test to graduate from the eighth grade.
Although there is strong opposition to this decision, authorities argue that if the U.S. is to remain competitive in the 21st century, American students need to be brought up to par with those in the rest of the world. Math and science education is crucial to closing that gap.
On this note, Neil McAllister, of the Info World Magazine (US) is of the opinion that if modernising education is the name of the game, maybe it's time that the govt incorporates fundamental computer literacy into the curriculum of U.S. public schools. If eighth graders should know algebra, by the tenth grade, they should be programming in Java!
But question is, is mandatory programming coursework somewhat like 'putting the cart before the horse'? McAllister doesn't think so. He says that it's time we shed some of the popular prejudices and misconceptions surrounding computer literacy, many of which are simply remnants of a bygone era.
He goes on to say that, "When I was in school in the 1980s, movies like War Games and Tron popularised the image of the computer hacker as the inscrutable, impossibly intelligent outsider. Video games were cool, but if you actually made them, you were probably a socially-stunted nerd."
However, all of that has changed. Today, every modern school-age kid does have access to a PC -- and with it an e-mail address, MSN, Yahoo and Gmail accounts, a Facebook page, games, applications, and all the resources of the World Wide Web. Today our phones are digital, our cameras are digital, our music is digital, our DVD movies are digital, even our television is slowly turning all digital.
Like it or not, computing devices are everywhere. But the one thing that hasn't changed is the idea that computer programming -- real, deep-down, core computer literacy -- is something for nerds, geeks, and outsiders. A common misconception!
Today's kids have every incentive to delve into the world of programming. Whether it's to trick out a Web page or interface with Facebook, programming has real-world applications that have relevance to kids' lives.
Instead of labelling their enthusiasm for computers as 'disruptive' or 'aberrant' behaviour, it is high time that we should harness it as an educational tool. By integrating computer literacy into school curriculum from an early age, we would give students a learning experience that more accurately reflects the modern world around them.
The old-fashioned idea that computers allow students to cheat in their homework is also a common misconception that needs to be addressed. Computer programming languages are really just alternative ways to represent solutions to logical problems. Instead of the regular math exercises, why not challenge students with assignments that engage their creativity as well as their capacity for logical thinking?
Where traditional math problems can be unforgiving, programming languages like Python or JavaScript offer students interactive environments that encourage them to explore and experiment a lot. The immediate feedback they receive when they solve problems gives them individual encouragement and positive reinforcement -- things that textbooks alone can never provide!
In Bangladesh, the Informatics Olympiad and other such events, encourages the young guns to experiment with programming languages, but making it a compulsory subject for all schoolgoers seems to be a far fetched plan at this point, but one that needs some considerable amount of thought!
Source:
The Daily Star
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